AIRFest XX Lost and Found

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dcbertelsen

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I saw a similar thread for the last few LDRS's and thought I'd start one up. We found and returned a few items to the RSO table, but this thread might be helpful after the event.

Doug
 
First missing item:

Black Wildman 5" Jart. Lost tracking data due to flakey tracking application. Attached is a Google Earth map with some data that might help. Searched far and wide for about 5 hours with no luck; the transmitter battery is certainly dead by now. Reconstructed as much as possible from home today with limited info. Was last seen drifting under a black homemade chute. The red area is roughly where I expect it to be. There is a good chance it will pop up during planting, but I thought I would put out an APB if anyone located it today.

Thanks in advance,
Doug

Jart Map.jpg
 
Thanks to everyone with Kloudbusters, first event for me and my boys with y'all and it was awesome.
We are looking for a rocket that was lost Saturday just before noon, a 56" Partizon painted all silver. Anyone see it please let me know, reward too
Thanks Jonathan Barras
 
A buddy of mine lost a Mini Mag red white and silver band. Also lost The Love grenade orange. Reward if found.
 
Guys,
Lance and I are going out Saturday morning in a Cessna 172 and plan on overflying the fields looking for rockets. If we can spot them we will get a GPS location and I plan on driving down on Sunday to pick up what we find. I'll keep you posted as to our success.
Bob Brown
 
Guys,
Lance and I are going out Saturday morning in a Cessna 172 and plan on overflying the fields looking for rockets. If we can spot them we will get a GPS location and I plan on driving down on Sunday to pick up what we find. I'll keep you posted as to our success.
Bob Brown

Now THAT is a full service prefecture! :D
 
I'll personally make a donation to the Kloudbusters if my rocket is retrieved and would urge others to do the same. This is truly above and beyond.

Doug

Guys,
Lance and I are going out Saturday morning in a Cessna 172 and plan on overflying the fields looking for rockets. If we can spot them we will get a GPS location and I plan on driving down on Sunday to pick up what we find. I'll keep you posted as to our success.
Bob Brown
 
Missing; PML “X-Calibur” last seen rising on a pillar of smoke flame and sparks from the 70s pads. Rocket is described as having six fins and is painted gold with a red nose cone. Possibly sighted during its decent towards Earth drifting along a northeasterly heading. Rocket was wearing a red and white parachute along with an AeroTech 38/420 motor case.

Formally “boomtube”; don’t ask.
 
On Friday I lost a RocketryWarehouse G3 - 3"x72" orange fiberglass rocket with 58" red chute. Tracker died on the pad. Most likely location is in the milo field about 1 mile north of the launch site. I will pay reward. Thank you Lance and Bob for taking the time to help.

Kevin
 
I'll personally make a donation to the Kloudbusters if my rocket is retrieved and would urge others to do the same. This is truly above and beyond.

Doug

+1.

Missing: 4" OD X 64" Length Composite Case/Airframe (black) with fin can attached. Just looking for the case… there will be nothing else with it.
 
The Kloudbuster AirForce is back at base! We spotted what we think are three rockets in a bean field NE of the Rocket Pasture. We have GPS coordinates on all of them (more or less) and I'm planning on driving down tomorrow and seeing if I can find them on the ground.

Don't bother asking what kind of rocket we spotted. Between hunting for them, getting GPS coordinates and keeping from doing something stupid with the airplane. we were pretty busy!

Flying around down there really low reminded me of an old joke. It goes like this: "There is one pilot who holds the record for the highest flight in an aircraft. There are a bunch tied for lowest!"

Bob
 
Don't bother asking what kind of rocket we spotted. Between hunting for them, getting GPS coordinates and keeping from doing something stupid with the airplane. we were pretty busy!

...with that last part being the singular most important!

Pretty cool service you guys are providing, and I'm betting you and Lance had some fun in the airplane, too!

-Kevin
 
I was close. I had a Wildman Jr (minus av bay and payload section) on a CTI i800. The delay grain didn't make it to the ejection charge and I found out how tough Wildman kits are. My son and I drove towards the last GPS position and saw the last few inches of rocket sticking out of the ground in what would pass for a shoulder on the road. With a little razzing (Kevin's name was mentioned), I acquired a couple of shovels from the Kloudbusters and proceeded digging. I think the rocket got a nice sanding as it buried itself in the Kansas soil. It took over an hour of digging and a couple of dust angels, but I got the body of the rocket back unharmed; the nosecone suffered from my impatience and will need replaced. I do think that it was smoother coming out of the ground than when it went in. ;)

Kind of a rough weekend; bury one and not find another. Here's hoping next year is more successful!

Doug
 
Has anyone yet bested Kevin's "lowest" record (i.e., "journey to the center of the earth") at Argonia? :duck:

Maybe, but only *I* got the shirt....for half the rocketry crowd, from the looks of it.... :p

-Kevin

PS: Hey, David? Next time you stop through, you're getting McDonald's. Your dad will still get BBQ :D
 
Maybe, but only *I* got the shirt....for half the rocketry crowd, from the looks of it.... :p

-Kevin


I can attest that the shirts are still around. I saw one in the flesh last weekend. I will say that Kevin sets a rather high, or as the case is, low bar.

Doug
 
Well. . . .
After the Kloudbuster Air Force flew its recon mission over the Rocket Pasture and surrounding fields yesterday, it was time to send in the ground forces today. Actually, "ground forces" isn't exactly correct, it was more like "ground force". Everyone else being busy, I jumped in my car and headed down to "ground zero" to see if I could find the three targets we spotted from the air.

As it turns out, the three targets turned out to be two targets with two of them being the same rocket separated by a long shock cord.

The first rocket I found was RocketRob's Mini Mag. The GPS coordinates from flying over and pushing the button when I thought I was over it turned out to be off by 180'. Now that doesn't sound like much but the search took almost 30 minutes to locate the rocket. The rocket it's self is in great condition. I believe Lance has contacted the owner. If not drop me a PM and we will figure out how to get the rocket to you.

The next rocket I found took a loooong time to find. It was no where near the coordinates I had! I remembered where they were in relation to each other and wondered off that direction. An hour and a half later, I stumbled upon kruland's orange G3. This was the rocket with the long shock cord! It too is in excellent shape.

After two hours of wandering in a bean fields looking for rockets I called it quits! Those of you who have done it know the drudgery of searching for your rocket in the crops. It's less fun looking for someone else's rocket!

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!!
Folks, go get a Sharpie right now! I'll wait.









Got it, good! Now, go write your name or your TRA number on your rockets in a couple of conspicuous spots. After a big launch, we always have a rocket or two turn up that we can't identify who the owner is. With this simple step, your chances of getting your rocket back after losing it at a big launch really goes up. It makes our lives easier as well.

Bob
 
Bob,

The effort was greatly appreciated. I'm sure more will turn up in the future.

Doug
 
Has anyone yet bested Kevin's "lowest" record (i.e., "journey to the center of the earth") at Argonia? :duck:

There was the Katie? voiced rocket that went in ballistic. Was told by a search team member that the aft end of rocket was a good 5 feet under ground. This was a rocket launched from the 80's pad.

Very neat to hear the telemetry being spoken out during the flight. Very sad to hear of it's demise.
 
Lance, I'm almost positive that Minnie Magg is Ben Whitfield's from Beulah, CO. He rode out with me in Vanna White. I'll call him tonight. He just had cataract surgery so next time he flies he'll be able to see what and where his bird goes.
 
Lance, I'm almost positive that Minnie Magg is Ben Whitfield's from Beulah, CO. He rode out with me in Vanna White. I'll call him tonight. He just had cataract surgery so next time he flies he'll be able to see what and where his bird goes.
ok. That sounds good. I will watch for a message.

--Lance.
 
Ben called me last night - said he sent a message to the Kloudbusters webpage? If this doesn't plan out, Please let me know - I'll send cash/postal order whatever to get Ben's rocket back to him. Or I can PAYPAL Kloudbusters or whatever is going to work. He was really looking forward to flying that again at NCR's Oktoberfest - Oct 2,3,4 - Pawnee National Grassland.
 
We had a launch this past weekend and Saturday morning our landowner stopped by and said that he found a rocket sticking out of one of his fields. The next day he took us out there and this is what we dug up!
IMG_0453.jpg
There's not much left that's any good. If you are the owner, contact me any we will figure out how to get it to you.
Bob Brown
 
So my “X-Calibur” is still out there somewhere?

Maybe somebody will find it during “Distant Thunder” while I’m up there.
 
Chris told me you had found it. If you can just keep it till next year that would be great. I found the rest of it only lost the fin can and motor.

Thanks
Kendall
 
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